Some shop owners and their customers narrowly escaped death on Monday escaped death when a storey-building collapsed in Bukuru community, in the Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State.
For security reasons, the shop owner in the impacted building declined to give his name. He claimed that all of his merchandise was trapped in the structure, which had been there for five years.
He said, “We had a supermarket there before it collapsed. Everything we sell there is currently in ruins and is trapped. The building was constructed about five years ago, so it is not an old one.
“We were in the building the day before, taking care of our clients up until we closed for the day, and there was no indication that there was any problem.
“But to our greatest surprise, the building collapsed in the night. But we thank God the building did not collapse when we were still in the shop with our customers.”
The General Manager, Jos Metropolitan Development Board, John Kefas, said there was no loss of life recorded in the incident.
Kefas said, “Upon arrival, we discovered that it is one of the buildings which we had earlier earmarked as unsafe and illegally constructed for which we had asked the occupants to vacate.
“But we are happy that there was no casualty. Our technical staffs are presently carrying out further investigation to establish what actually happened that led to the collapse of the building.”
